Police officers in Missouri stole $2.6 million from drivers they knew had committed no crime. The cops used a loophole in the Federal government’s law to get away the theft.
As part of a larger series on national asset forfeiture cases organized by the Pulitzer Center, St. Louis Public Radio reported that St. Charles County law enforcement coerced at least 39 unsuspecting motorists into signing over their assets in 2018. This won’t be widely reported on, however, you can bet we Americans live in an oppressive police state. The laws protect the ruling class from us and allow them to steal from us.
Martial Law Masquerading as Law and Order: The Police State’s Language of Force
According to the report, officers would lie in wait for a car committing a minor traffic violation. Upon seeing the minor violation, officers would then pull the car over, question the motorist, and then direct them to a private towing lot owned by Superior Towing. While in the lot, officers would ask more questions and search the vehicle, all in the hopes of finding large amounts of cash or connections to drugs.
If a trained police dog smelled marijuana on the cash, officers then gave the motorists two options: they could go to jail, or sign their possessions away to the department and leave with a traffic ticket. –Reason
This is corruption and immorality of the highest degree. In all 39 stops, not a single charge was filed, yet the private property was still stolen. Like taxation, this is legalized theft. It doesn’t matter if it’s called “civil asset forfeiture” or not, theft by any other name is still theft. The ruling class can take whatever they want from anyone else.
Terrorized, Traumatized and Killed: The Police State’s Deadly Toll on America’s Children
According to a report by Reason, Missouri state law requires a criminal conviction or a guilty plea before forfeiture, and the assets are supposed to go towards schools, not law enforcement. However, according to the Pulitzer Center’s report, the federal Equitable Sharing program allowed the corruption of the police officers. Once the stolen money was seized, it was supposed to go to the schools. But the Department of Justice provides a guide to the program, which allows for the “potential to share federal forfeiture proceeds with cooperating state and local law enforcement agencies.” By turning over their convictionless assets to the federal government, St. Charles law enforcement can split the funds 80-20.
A legislative effort to close this loophole and force law enforcement to comply with state law was defeated this year after the local police lobby quietly campaigned against it, calling it “anti-police.” Nothing about this is “anti-police.” This is straight-up anti-human rights.
H/T [Reason]
Battlefield America: The War on the American People is Whitehead’s terrifying portrait of a nation at war with itself. In exchange for safe schools and lower crime rates, we have opened the doors to militarized police, zero-tolerance policies in schools, and SWAT team raids. The insidious shift was so subtle that most of us had no idea it was happening. This follow-up to Whitehead’s award-winning A Government of Wolves is a brutal critique of an America on the verge of destroying the very freedoms that define it. Hands up!―the police state has arrived.
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This country stands no chance of surviving, since it is filled with systemic corruption, with this article referencing just one of the many examples. We know who the terrorists are that hate us for our freedoms and our way of life, and none of them live in the Muslim countries!
https://davethelibertarian.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/h-l-mencken-quotes.jpg?w=584&h=337
Mencken: I believe it is better to be a free man…
So, what happened to those whom chose to be arrested? That’s the important other side of the story.
I read the primary article. Who the hell is cruising state to state with 100 grand in cash, being a ‘migrant business owner’ whom can not or will not access bank accounts, and the likes.
When do the deportations start?
People need to understand, when you’re on the highway, you may as well be in another state because your state rules most likely will not protect you. We avoid the highway most of the times unless it’s an unreasonable distance. Primarily for safety reasons and comfort, but also because you give up a great deal of your rights the moment you pull onto any highway in America. Of course, drug dealing migrants and their mules are less likely to know about this.
I believe in due process. I also believe in the rule of law.
You can’t have it both ways. Although not framed that way, the story is at it’s heart, speaking on illegal migration.
It’s not about illegal migration. It’s about sovereign rights to go about your business without being robbed by the king’s agents.
Your don’t believe in due process nor rule of law. You believe in color of law.
Having been in a civil court at both the state and federal levels in the past two years I can affirm there is no longer “due process” of law. Which also means there is no longer “rule of law.” But since the deep state globalists have began legalizing lawlessness, it don’t much matter.
And some wonder why many people are so hostile to police.
The police are there to “Protect and Serve” their masters – government – from We The People.